For a growing percentage of the population, the new normal is voice. With 66 million Americans (and counting) owning a smart speaker, the trend is undeniable—except, possibly, in real estate, where businesses have largely overlooked it, save for searches tied to the transaction.
Realogy is changing that with a new tool: Agent X.
With the Agent X assistant, affiliated agents with an Amazon Alexa device gain insight into their performance and schedule, with calendar and CRM integrations, as well as housing and industry news. In leveraging the tool, agents can cruise effectively through their to-dos, boosting productivity and saving time—and, are given the latest news in real estate, helping to inform their interactions.
“Voice is going to change the way we do business, and it fits very nicely with the way our agents work on a day-to-day basis, and helps them unlock that productivity potential,” explains Chris Padilla, Realogy’s senior director of Product Development. “Our agents are able to ask for the information they’re looking for via voice when they don’t have time to dive deeper.”
“Alexa, start my day with Agent X.”
With a bevy of brands to consider in developing the tool—all with distinct information stores—Realogy culled data from a slew of sources, across its brands, history, products and services. As a result, Agent X is an integrated solution, capitalizing on the company’s comprehensive data trove.
“Agent X is built to augment our product offerings, via voice and with very minimal effort,” Padilla says. “Through the dozens of products that each of our brands has to offer, Agent X leverages the relevant listings, transaction, calendar and lead-generation information, along with aggregating those across the board.”Â
In practice, when Alexa is asked to “start my day with Agent X,” Agent X delivers a “Daily Digest,” or a customized productivity and schedule summary. For example:Â
“You have four listings under contract and six appointments today, starting with Jim Murphy at 8 a.m.”
With the Daily Digest, agents begin their day equipped with the information they need, communicated instantly, whether at home readying for work, or driving to the office or to a presentation or showing. The Daily Digest includes appointments for the day, listing and news updates, and a performance scorecard. With this knowledge, agents are better prepared to tackle their tasks, driving efficiency and organization.
“Agent X taps into, contextually, that agent’s profile to be able to walk them through what they need to know for the day ahead, and give them the info they need most via the giant breadth of data we have,” Padilla says.
Additionally, Agent X can access their CRM database and describe their listings, categorized by status (e.g., active, pending). As an assistant in the real world would, Agent X has calendaring capabilities, as well, including the ability to add appointments into their schedule.
“Whether it’s lead generation, market intelligence or CRM transaction management, Agent X is there to assist our agents in their daily lives, making them more efficient and effective,” says Padilla.
Agent X debuted at the new Realogy Global Exchange, a conference gathering the multiple names under its umbrella, where attendees were given the opportunity to preview the tool. In earlier testing, Realogy called on Century 21 agents and brokers, including Adam Clemens of CENTURY 21 Clemens Group.
“I eagerly signed up for the initial pilot,” Clemens explains. “Ever since, I use Agent X daily. The mere thought that I could use it practically to streamline my day-to-day work-related activities was pretty awesome. I was very excited about the opportunity to see how this admittedly consumer-focused technology could be used to help me in my daily work routine.”
For Clemens, the calendar integration and news are powerful. Agent X downloads him on the headlines in the market—”I like to stay on top of all things real estate,” he says—and connects to his Google Calendar so he can optimally prioritize his time.
“I can block time for client meetings on-the-go without missing a beat, or, worse, double booking,” Clemens says. “It’s easy and it’s reliable—like having a digital assistant around me at all times.”
According to Padilla, consumer home-related searches were the start (e.g., “Alexa, find me houses for sale in Des Moines”). Bringing business into the fold is the next pivotal step—one that Realogy has committed to implementing.
“Voice in general is a new frontier—the next era for individuals to unlock potential value,” Padilla says. “Most people are checking the weather, playing their music or turning the lights on via voice. What all of those areas have in common is that they’re consumer-based activities. What’s missing are the business-related activities.”
Currently in the latter phases of testing, Agent X is expected to hit the masses in Q3, according to Padilla. When the roll-out starts, affiliated agents and brokers will have an invaluable new tool, helping them improve productivity without sacrificing time.
“The most valuable thing any piece of technology can provide an agent is time, so the fact that Agent X saves me time makes it a tool that I think every agent should use,” Clemens says.
Suzanne De Vita is RISMedia’s online news editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at sdevita@rismedia.com.
